New installation by Valerie Wolf Gang exhibited in Vienna.
Fluid
Installation, video, mechanical, glass, water, neural networks, AI, poetry, video
Vienna, Austria 2019
——
Exhibited in Gallery b a s e m e n t Vienna, Austria
Production UV Arthouse
Curator Claudia-Maria Luenig
Exhibition opening speech by Lucas Gehrmann, Kurator Kunsthalle Wien
Installation view:
ABOUT THE WORK
The work FLUID is inspired by Wolf Gang’s recent researches on the topic of water in the connection with human body. By her own personal experience, where she lost more than 30% of her body weight in the past year, she realized it’s not only the physical appearance which is changed, but it opens many more levels in one person’s life.
The human body is mainly made up of water. Water is our body’s most important nutrient and it is involved in every bodily function, making up 70 –75% of our total body weight and the main reason why it is so important to drink the required amount of water daily. Drinking a lot of water daily increases energy, improves memory, increases focus, it makes us stronger, faster, gives us radiant skin, it improves our mood. But what happens when one is losing the weight, when the fluid keeps extracting from our body?
In the work FLUID Wolf Gang presents her 30% of lost liquid in a form of distilled water which now became part of another form in space; symbolically it is a part of her (which left her body) and now became another object.
In physics, a fluid is a substance that continually deforms (flows) under an applied shear stress, or external force. Fluids are a phase of matter and include liquids, gases and plasmas. They are substances with zero shear modulus, or, in simpler terms, substances that cannot resist any shear force applied to them. The materialization of lost body fluid allegorically becomes out-of-body experience and it is a strong reminder that our intellect can remain the same, but our bodies (can) always change.
The work also speaks about our presence in space here and now – physically, mentally and how our mind can be separated from our body sometimes when we are thinking about something else as our current physical position.
Installation in space and the materialization of (lost) bodily mass/fluid are positioned next to the video that by contrast shows the lightness of digital media (immateriality), which represents the intellect and at the same time points on the physicality of the human body (materiality). In the video we can watch the video poetry which was generated by artificial intelligence and neural networks; the material for machine’s inspiration were 40 articles about the healthy lifestyle recommendation (hydration, sports, food etc.). Computer had a task to create a poetry out of this materials and it was recorded by a text-to-speech software to get an autonomous creation of the AI poetry.
Number 40 is the main ingredient in the installation: 40 liters, 40 minutes, 40 kilos, 40 articles and many fluids moving in space and time continuum.
AI generated poetry (part of the video):
One way to tell if you’re hydrated
What is a healthy lifestyle, exactly?
Next, grab a tape measure.
Insomnia and not getting a good night’s sleep can be frustrating
Avoid rewarding children with sugary snacks
What’s the big deal?
Water flushes out toxins and waste
But what about the earth in general?
Now imagine the air without water.
Women have less water than men
This water makes up a significant fraction of the
human body,
Oxygen and nutrients are distributed throughout the body,
Dehydration is one for the fastest routes to low energy
Digestion starts with saliva
Under normal conditions, water is eliminated from the
body through sweat, urine, feces and tears.
Even a mere 2% reduction in body
water can decrease performance, affect short-term memory, focus and increase fatigue.
The body changes over time
dehydration can lead to heart failure and death.
Your skin is the largest organ
To function properly, all the cells and organs of the body need water.
Water is required for breathing.
It is assumed that the ancestors of humankind developed the ability to run for long distances about
2.6 million years ago,
Starting a new habit is hard, especially when it’s one you kind of dread.
Pick
your distance
it’s never too late to start
running,
As time goes on, make the running intervals longer until you no longer feel the need to walk.
we can use running as
a tool to improve the way we think and feel.
Many experts consider exercise to be the closest thing to a miracle drug.
Every time you pound the pavement, you stress your bones and cartilage
So who’s right and who’s wrong
Overuse injuries result from taking on too much physical activity,
it’s the only method proven to prevent Alzheimer’s,
This is considerably less
effort than government recommendations
Not everyone is convinced.
A little bit is good but a little bit more is probably better,”
Running gives you the time and space to clear your mind or t hink through a problem.
After tedious or stressful days at work, it’s difficult to muster up the energy
But what about the things you might stop doing in the name of your longevity?
You don’t have to go overboard.
It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you,
you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite.
Valerie Wolf Gang 